by Scott Pratt
She smiled and hunched her shoulders. “Oh, this is the best part. I’ve got everything he did on video. The lawyer told me to send somebody up there in the woods with a camera. Ronnie filmed the whole thing. I’ll bet I’ve watched it ten times.”
I stared at her for a second, not quite believing what I’d just heard. I felt a chuckle making its way up through my chest. I tried to suppress it, but the more I tried, the harder it pushed. The first one made its way out of my mouth, and then another. Within a few seconds, I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe. I looked over at Erlene. She’d lost it too. It was one of the most visceral moments of my life, Erlene and I locked onto each other, laughing uncontrollably. It was almost as good as sex.
After a couple of minutes, I managed to get at least a little control of myself.
“You know what this means?” I said through a chuckle, “it means they won’t be able to use the car or anything they found in it! ”
Erlene looked like a bobblehead. “That was just what I was trying to do, sweetie. Isn’t it wonderful?”
We started cracking up again.
“They’ll have less on you…than they had on Angel.”
“I know.”
Finally we calmed down and Erlene turned serious.
“You’ll represent me, won’t you? You’ll handle it for me?”
I wiped a tear from my eye with the back of my hand. “I can’t, Erlene. It’s a conflict of interest.”
“I don’t see why. They found Angel not guilty. Her case is over, isn’t it? They can’t try her again no matter what. She won’t be a witness against me. All you have to do is show them the videotape, and that should be the end of it. Don’t you think?”
“I don’t know. It won’t be that simple. Nothing’s ever that simple.”
“C’mon, Mr. Dillard. Be a sweetheart. This’ll be a piece of cake for you. You’re the best there is. Oh, and speaking of that, I meant to tell you the way you set them up with your sister was brilliant. When Angel told me about it, I thought I was going to wet my pants.”
“I didn’t exactly plan that. I’m not as smart as you are.”
“Don’t kid yourself. Now what do you say? Will you do the same for me as you did for Angel?”
I was thinking about the conflict. She was right about Angel. They couldn’t try her again, no matter what, and since the rules prohibited me from uttering a word about Angel’s confession, it wouldn’t be an issue. On top of that, if Erlene really had a videotape of Landers conducting an illegal search, the car and everything in it would be out, there’d be no trial, and no risk that I’d ever have to question Angel on a witness stand. And because Angel had told me what really happened, I knew Erlene hadn’t killed Tester.
If I agreed, Erlene would be my innocent client. Finally. It was almost unbelievable.
“You’re going to be locked up in here for a while,” I said. “You up to it?”
“I could post a million in cash for bond if I wanted to, but I’m afraid the nosy old IRS people would wonder where I got all that money. Don’t you worry about me, baby doll. I’ll be fine.”
“You’re in for a bad run of publicity.”
“Doesn’t matter. The Junior League isn’t ever going to ask me to join anyway.”
“They’ll try to paint you as an immoral madame who uses young girls and preys on horny men.”
“You can clean me up. You’re a sugar pie.”
The woman had an almost irresistible charm about her, not to mention a fat bank account. I shook my head and grinned.
“Okay,” I said. “You’ve got yourself a lawyer. But it’s going to cost you.”
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